System or template slowness can be a result of many factors. Learn more about why templates are slow, what you can do about it, and ways to troubleshoot if you need additional Pica9 assistance.
Defining "Slow"
End Users may occasionally say that specific templates or the systems as a whole are running "slow". There are a variety of reasons why this might happen and most often the reason is easily within the System Administrator's ability to fix without Pica9 assistance. While End Users may have their definitions of "slow" behavior, as a general rule Pica9 expects transactions to take approximately 5 seconds or less.
Most Likely Suspect: Asset Size/Weight
The good news is that when a template is slow, the culprit is often an ill-optimized asset or assets that can be re-exported, and that will improve template speed. Below is an example of this situation.
Real-life Example: Page Crashing Upon Save and Finish Actions
A client had built a calendar template where franchisees could add event and holiday information. A franchisee submitted a complaint that when she went to "Save" and "Finish" the document, the template would just crash (i.e. get a browser error). The System Administrator noted that when she clicked only Finish, the document would generate but that it was very slow (i.e. taking minutes to generate the document.)
Upon investigation, the calendar asset itself was 351 MB in size - way too large for the browser to reasonably handle. The Template Composer decreased the size of the asset and said that there was a "visible decrease in the load time" for Saving and Finishing the document.
Not All Content Items Were Appearing
In that same example, the End User noted that she wasn't seeing all of the content items that should have been selectable from the Content Database. (The content database was returning close to a hundred items in this case for the query.) Adding filters so that the End User could narrow down the results that the system had to return increased system performance and created a better user experience because the End User didn't have to scroll through a list of 100 items to find what she was looking for.
Another Culprit: Extra Spaces
Sometimes when text is copied and pasted into a template from another source, extra spaces or returns can follow the text. If you've got a template that isn't generating a document and all the assets seem to be appropriately sized, check the text boxes for extra spaces. There have been text boxes that contained hundreds/thousands of extra spaces that slowed down the template. Removing these will immediately fix the issue.
Other Factors to Consider
If the End User is working from home, slowness could be a result of the End User's specific internet speed.
The slowness could also be related to IT involvement/network blocking that Pica9 is unaware of. If this is the case, then Pica9 will need to work with the relevant IT team to remove any blockers of CampaingDrive traffic.
Confirm the above with Sam and add any additional blockers.
Troubleshooting System
These are questions our team will ask if a system is slow:
- Was the slow behavior specific to a particular template, selecting/cropping images within a template, or downloading assets?
- Have you generated the document or downloaded the asset to your account? This will allow Pica9 to look at the transaction.
- What was the estimated length of loading experienced?
Next Steps if the Content is Determined to Not Be the Issue
- If possible, our development team would want to get on a screen share with you to see the behavior.
- Alternatively, you can make a screen recording to share with our team - when navigating the site in the screen recording, please right-click in the browser > select Inspect > and select the Network tab. Please leave the Network tab open and visible as you navigate through the CampaignDrive site, as this will help our development team better hone in on the potential causes of slow loading.
Best Practice: Complete Regularly Scheduled "Spring Cleaning" of Your Assets
Over time, the Media Library and the Template Tables will become a retainer for old creative that is no longer in use and is likely to not be used again. While this shouldn't have an effect on your system performance, Pica9 does recommend regular system clean-ups to remove old assets and templates so that the human experience of finding things is easier and search results are more relevant.